In a new book, End This Depression Now!, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says the current economic problems can be fixed both more easily and more quickly than anyone imagines. But politicians’ desire to slash spending is deeply destructive, and he details why austerity is so appealing even to Very Serious People – and why it’s such a bad idea.

In the scary months that followed the fall of Lehman Brothers, just about all major governments agreed that the sudden … Read more »

More than a year after the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the Japanese government, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) present similar assurances of the site’s current state: challenges remain but everything is under control. The worst is over.

But nuclear waste experts say the Japanese are literally playing with fire in the way nuclear spent fuel continues to be stored onsite, especially in reactor 4, which … Read more »

The history of American democracy, to say the least, has been checkered. Our nation was founded at a time when people of African descent were held in bondage. After slavery was abolished, they were forced to endure legal discrimination for another 100 years.

When our country was formed, women were not just second-class citizens. They were third- or fourth-class citizens. Women couldn’t vote or play a significant role in the political life of the … Read more »

Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack … Read more »

Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland with one of the primary reasons being that the company’s genetically modified corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of … Read more »

Taxes are never popular, especially in April of an election year. But the Republicans’ latest effort to tilt the tax code in favor of the wealthy, and starve the government of needed revenue, is particularly cynical.

This week, the House Republican leadership is expected to bring up the “Small Business Tax Cut Act,” a bill to let most business owners deduct up to 20 percent of their business income in 2012 – a … Read more »

I have it in my hand, the gorgeous deluxe edition of Barbra Streisand’s “What Matters Most” album. This is her self-produced tribute to her old friends, the great lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. If the Bergmans didn’t quite “invent” Barbra, in the manner of John Kander and Fred Ebb, a la Liza Minnelli, they are responsible for so many of Streisand’s signature tunes—including the score for “Yentl”—that they have become vital to Barbra’s enduring legend. The Bergmans know her voice, … Read more »

Barbra Streisand has long enjoyed the luxury of taking on only those projects that she’s passionate about. But her latest album , she insists, is a particular “labor of love.”

What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, out Tuesday, features 10 songs by the beloved husband-and-wife team, Streisand’s longtime collaborators and friends. All were recorded by the singer for the first time — a notable detail, as Streisand, 69, … Read more »

THEY met her when she was an 18-year-old new kid on the block performing in a tiny club. Wearing an outfit of her own creation (a white blouse and a long herringbone skirt) she opened her mouth, began to sing and brought one woman in the audience to tears.

“I started to cry and I did not stop throughout this little gig in Greenwich Village,” says celebrated lyricist Marilyn Bergman who was with her husband … Read more »

Did you know that Alan Bergman wrote “That Face” to propose to his wife Marilyn? Watch this new video on AARP.com to hear the full story behind the song from Alan and Marilyn and listen to Barbra’s completely new recording of it now! “That Face” is just one of the tracks included on her new album What Matters Most – Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan & Marilyn Bergman, in stores August 23!… Read more »

Streisand dialed down the diva ‘tude for 2009’s Love Is the Answer, a relatively restrained collaboration with jazz star Diana Krall that led to the legend’s first club date in decades. Here Babs goes bigger, singing the natural-fiber stuffing out of 10 dramatic tearjerkers by her old pals Alan and Marilyn Bergman (”The Way We Were,” ”You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”). On ”So Many Stars,” she even does a few bars in Portuguese, just because she can. B+… Read more »

Talk about the ultimate engagement gift. When young Brooklynite Alan Bergman wanted to mark his upcoming marriage to fiancé Marilyn Katz, he wrote a song for her called “That Face,” and arranged for Fred Astaire to record it.

The Bergmans, now three-time Academy Award winners for their song lyrics, have been married for 54 years. And for many of them, there has been another woman in their life — the singer they call their “muse” and close collaborator, Barbra … Read more »

On August 23, Columbia Music will debut Barbra Streisand’s new album “What Matters Most,” in which she performs only songs with lyrics by noted award-winning (Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Cable-Ace) lyricists, Alan and Marilyn Bergman. They write below:

To hear Barbra Streisand sing a song we’ve written is to know why we chose to become writers.

She always gets exactly what we mean in a lyric. And more. The actor that she is, the director … Read more »